Candidate to President of Azerbaijan Mais Gulaliyev: "People prefer to express their resentment furtively. But when they are suggested to voice the resentment by means of protests, they pretend not to see any problems"

-Mr. Gulaliyev, as far as we know, you intend to participate in the presidential elections. How did you come to it, considering that these are not parliamentary elections for a chairman of each party to take part in them?

-The decision  to participate in the elections was adopted not at once. Our party has formed not long before, therefore, before declaring our intention to take part in the elections, we primarily, assessed our chances, compared the activity of various political structures and according to the results, our party will face no problems in joining this process.

-How many members are there in your political party at present?

-Currently the Green Party of Azerbaijan is composed of over 1,500 people. But we are sure that in the near future and after elections the party will expand.

-As far as we know, your party has not yet passed the state registration in the Ministry of Justice and the registration of an independent candidate requires support of 80,000 people. Who do you hope for?

-In line with article 181 of the Electoral Code, it is necessary to gather over 45,000 signatures to pass registration in the Central Election Commission. I think  we can collect the necessary number of signatures in line with legislation. The existent law  also allows to nominate candidacies on behalf of the initiative group.

-What will you do if by some technical reasons the Central Election Commission will fail to register you as a candidate?

-In line with legislation, in case a candidate is not able to collect the due signatures, he will have to pay a deposit of about AZN 33,000. Yet, we are not able to pay this amount, therefore we will do everything possible to gather the necessary number of signatures.

If we are not able to gather sufficient number of signatures, we will have to withdraw the "Green" candidate.

-Experts estimate that for participation in presidential elections, a candidate will need at least $1,000,000. If we can not pay a deposit in the amount of AZN 33,000, how are you going to participate in the elections?

-Today, most people state that politics require money. This is the biggest mistake in the political life of Azerbaijan. However, I think that in order to engage in politics, one should have not money but good ideological basis, a program, which could lead people.

A question rises, why a politician or the party chairman needs money? First of all to provide his employees with salary. The main task of the Green Party is to breed a new "green" person. Therefore, we need an attractive ideology for people to work on social basis. Our power is in our ideology.

We are sure that if a party will protect interests of people, they will follow it. "Green ideology" is the ideology of future. We will have to propagandize this ideology and protect interests of each citizen.

I would admit that while conducting the election campaign, we will need funds to visit regions, but I hope for the assistance of our supporters.

-There were such cases when a candidate was supported by various business-structures. Do you have such a sponsor?

-Currently, there is no such a person, which would be ready to allot grant for our political activity. But in the future I hope the Law on political parties will change and parties will be financed from the state budget in line with votes, gained at the elections. But this will require restoration of a proportional system.

Yet the working law does not prohibit to citizens and party members to assist to political parties. If we are proposed such help, we will consider it in the framework of our program.

-What was included into your election platform? How are you going to oppose the candidates from the ruling and opposition parties?

-Our platform differs significantly from the proposals of authorities and opposition. Political motives of the activity of the ruling or opposition parties are almost the same. The Green Party of Azerbaijan  has its own proposals on the resolution of the Karabakh problem.

We are against Azerbaijan's NATO accession. We have our own opinion about the oil revenues of our country. We are against construction of a nuclear power plant in the country. The party also attaches great importance to the country's globalization and internationalization.

Our platform includes the problems, raise by the world green parties. We want three main problems-food, energy and ecology, to be settled in Azerbaijan. All these problems form a basis for national security.

For this purpose we propose to develop and program, which will help evade future problems.

The proposed solution of the food program includes weakening of oil sector development. Most parties in the country speak for development of this sector, but we are for development of the non-oil sector.

We call to support good relations with  neighbor countries, especially on the background of development of food and energy problems, there is a need for regional economic integration.

On the whole, the ecological problem remains the most urgent one for Baku and Sumgayit. The quality of water and air does not comply with international standard. Ecological situation in Baku has deteriorated so much that all "diseases" of the city are obvious.

-You have listed too many problems, but what does your party do to settle at least one of them?

-These and other problems are not settled in the framework of one or more political parties. The problems, facing society, are settled by the society itself in cooperation with the government. However, a party can propose ideas and strategies for the problems settlement.

We as a political party hold only an organizational work, as unlike other parties, we have a strong ideological basis, which is peculiar of the existent green parties.

Studying definite problems, we are currently seeking ways out of the established situation and after that the party will initiate the campaign of people enlightenment.

Naturally, the Green Party of Azerbaijan has limited opportunities because it has no access to television and it can only spread its ideas by means of printed press or news agencies. In line with the current statistics, only 8% of population reads newspaper and a bit higher number gets information via internet. In such situation we should find other alternative ways of informing the audience.

We consider that mass protests should be used for the agitation work. Such method attracts attention of the audience, parliament and international organizations. Now we intend to apply the said method and we hope we will be able to draw attention of the population to the priority problems

-What prevents you from initiating these actions today, as for example a simple case-the protest against the mass cutting of trees along the airport highway?

-Mass cutting of trees is observed not only along the airport highway, but also in all regions of Azerbaijan  and corners of Baku. No action of the Green Party would help prevent it.

Studies show that actions against cutting trees are aimed to attract attention of population or just inform people.

The Azerbaijani society is too isolated from the state regulation and is indifferent to ecological problems. People prefer to express their resentment furtively. But when they are suggested to voice the resentment by means of protests, they pretend not to see any problems.

On the whole-if  a separate person cuts trees, he can be brought to responsibility.

In this case a question arises: who backs cutting trees along the airport highway and in the streets?

Naturally, this is backed by the Baku city administration, other officials, who are interested in construction of a new building in this place. These people feel too confident about their impunity.

We admit that the Azerbaijan Green Party should speak in this case, yet cutting trees in Baku is a global problem and is impossible to be settled only by actions. It is necessary to approach this problem globally and settle it by changing the Constitution and due laws.

One of the main problems of the Azerbaijani society is absence of independent judges. Until courts are dependent and laws do not work, it will not be possible to restore justice and stop cutting trees.

Speaking about cutting trees or corruption, we again return to the issue of incomes for oil dollars. Reconstruction is held in the city by means of colossal oil incomes, which, according to the government or international organizations, should be spent on something to manage the society easily. All the projects of the United States and EU, implemented in Azerbaijan, are aimed at it. If a new road to the airport was not constructed, it would be necessary to hold the second or the third road to Shemakha, Quba or Qazakh and so on.

This is done to spend money rapidly and ineffectively. They fare the effective use of these profits. If they are used for more useful works, one day an ordinary citizen of Azerbaijan will ask a question about oil contracts, transparency of oil profits or the activity of international financial institutes.

In order to prevent people from asking such questions and make them indifferent, there is a tested way out, apply corruption in the education system, built festivity houses and restaurants,prevent political or enlightenment programs, fill the whole air time with soap operas, show programs and so on.

-It is considered in the political atmosphere that separate unpopular candidates are participating in the elections just for appearance. Don't you want to participate in the elections just for appearance?

-The political arena should constantly update. Yesterday's "popular" will give their place to new "unpopular" ones. This is not only normal, but also necessary for development of the political image of the society. The Green Party is quite a new political structure. But let's admit that this party has brought a new ideology to the political life of Azerbaijan.

Ideology and program of the Green Party strongly differs from other political parties. Those, who know me, are confident that I can not be a screen. Everyone knows who acts for appearance.

The main issue is to what extend will the green candidate inform the voters about his ideas. I do not think that someone will say in the future that participating in the elections I was a screen between powers and opposition. There are no powers in Azerbaijan who have clear, consistent idea or position on any issues, as the Azerbaijan Green Party.

The Green Party does not pursue goal to come to powers. Our goal is to inform the voters about main problems of problems, facing the Azerbaijani community. But the powers should be a means for the settlement of these problems. In this sense, we regard the elections as a combat between ideas and programs, not as a combat for power. The Green party has a definite program for the settlement of various problems. The screen is those who do not have their own ideas and programs.

-Whom do you consider your rival among the candidates, who declared intention to participate in the presidential elections?

-No party in Azerbaijan can rival the Green party as to ideology. We are always ready to discuss any political issues with other political parties. Though we are a new party, our organizational resources are not week as compared to other old parties, except for the ruling one.

The ruling party has a wide administrative resource. All e-medias work for the ruling party. Yet, it does not have the most important thing, which is a clear and consistent ideology. Despite it the candidate for the ruling party will be the main rival for the green candidate this year. I do not see rivals among opposition leaders. Considering it, we will build such an election campaign, which would allow us to advance.

/Day.Az/